Knowledge that Transforms

We present organizational logics as a meso-level construct that lies between institutional theory's field-level logics and the sense-making activities of individual agents in organizations. We argue that an institutional logic can be operationalized empirically using the concept of a discourse – that is, a coherent symbolic system articulating what constitutes legitimate, reasonable, and effective conduct in, around, and by organizations. An organization may, moreover, be simultaneously exposed to several institutional logics that make up its broader ideational environment. Taking these three observations together enables us to consider an organizational logic as a spatially and temporally localized configuration of diverse discourses. We go on to show how organizational logics were transformed in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1953 and 1999 by examining the changing discourses that appeared in the Corporation's annual reports. We argue that these discourses were modified through three main forms of discursive agency: (1) undertaking acts of ironic accommodation between competing discourses; (2) building chains of equivalence between the potentially contradictory discourses; and (3) reconciling new and old discourses through pragmatic acts of ‘bricolage’. We found that, using these forms of discursive agency, a powerful coalition of actors was able to transform the dominant organizational logic of the ABC from one where the Corporation's initial mission was to serve national interests through public service to one that was ultimately focused on participating in a globalized media market. Finally, we note that discursive resources could be used as the basis for resistance by less powerful agents, although further research is necessary to determine exactly how more powerful and less powerful agents interact around the establishment of an organizational logic.

Strategically aligned behaviour (SAB), i.e. employee action that is consistent with the company's strategy, is of vital importance to companies. This study provides insights into the way managers could promote such behaviour among employees (who can be managers as well) by stimulating employee motivation, by informing employees, and by stimulating the development of their capabilities. The results of surveys conducted in three organizations suggest that, first, perceived efforts by management aimed at motivating and informing employees (both managers and non‐managers), and at developing their capabilities, each are related to SAB. Second, among the perceived efforts to stimulate motivation among employees, providing a rationale for the strategy and an open communication climate have a stronger relationship with SAB than participation in decision making and supportiveness. Third, the perceptions of the different types of managerial effort are related to each other. For this reason, the efforts have direct as well as indirect relationships to SAB. Fourth, each of the perceived efforts seems to be complementary to the others, in the sense that the relationship of one type of effort to SAB is stronger when other types of effort are perceived to be higher.

In this paper we extend previous research by combining network structural and network process approaches. Specifically, in a six‐year, three‐wave study of 41 firms in two strategic networks, we found that the interaction between generalized reciprocity among a focal firm's partners and network tie intensity and betweenness centrality improved firm performance. No influences were observed for the interaction involving degree centrality and generalized reciprocity. Our research suggests that managers in strategic networks may need to consider the balance between relationship‐extensive and relationship‐intensive strategies.

Learning about customers and their contexts is vital to firm strategy. We examine how firms can learn by participating in their customers' networks. Specifically, we explain how a bank can increase the value that it creates for customers by being embedded in the networks in which the customers are embedded. We argue that knowledge pertinent to a particular customer is available in the network of affiliated, inter‐related customers, and that being structurally embedded in this network can help banks overcome information asymmetries. We use hierarchical linear modelling to test the argument that a bank's structural embeddedness in its customers' network positively affects the bank's ability to offer favourable credit terms. We find that not only does such structural embeddedness affect credit terms, but it also moderates the effects of previously examined relational embeddedness on credit terms.

Social trends that raised the value of esoteric expertise, stimulated the creation of knowledge‐intensive firms and so created an opportunity to study some organizations that academics had overlooked. A lack of presuppositions, a useful research method, and thoughtful experts in these firms helped to uncover some surprising behaviours. The resulting paper attracted citations and may have stimulated research about knowledge as a business resource and a managerial challenge. However, the topic continues to pose questions for further research.

In this paper, drawing from the learning from failure perspective, we argue that firms that have experienced prior terminations are less likely to have their future alliance terminated. Our key argument is that prior terminations will enable firms to design better alliances and adopt more appropriate alliance management strategies to avoid future terminations. We also suggest a more nuanced view of learning by hypothesizing that termination experience will mediate the relationship between alliance formation experience and likelihood of termination. We used the case–control methodology to select a sample of 198 alliances (consisting of 99 terminations and an equal number of surviving alliances) from the global biotechnology industry, and deployed logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses in a multivariate setting. Our analysis strongly supports both hypotheses.

This rejoinder ties in with a Point–Counterpoint debate on the rigour–relevance gap which was published in the May 2009 issue of JMS . Responding to our critics we advance four arguments: (1) Only practitioners, not management scholars, can ultimately assess relevance of research by applying solutions derived from research results. (2) Collaborative management research whose output, in the publishing process, has to pass reviews in which criteria of rigour dominate does not necessarily generate research of higher relevance. (3) The ‘body of scientific evidence’ which our critics refer to contains an abundance of contradicting findings and recommendations and is therefore not of much help for practitioners. (4) Since the academic management journals and the ranking systems are controlling management research, a change towards epistemologies that foster relevance of research, as envisaged by our critics, is not very likely.

One common approach scholars use in management studies to develop theory is what I will call ‘borrowing’, i.e. bringing ideas from one theoretical domain to address an issue or explain a phenomenon in another domain. An example of this practice would be Burgelman's (1991) use of evolutionary theory to explain how firms renew organizational competencies. Borrowing ideas from a field like biology for theory development in a social science is not without risks, however, and an interest in these risks is what sparked this Point–Counterpoint. Zahra and Newey (2009) offer an appealing framework for thinking about the opportunities and challenges of borrowing and integrating theories across domains (or ‘intersecting’ as they say). The idea in their paper is that integration of theory may be done in one of three ways (potentially overlapping): (1) application or replication from the parent to the focal domain, where neither is changed very much; (2) theory extension in the focal domain based on ideas in the parent; and (3) transformation of ideas in the parent domain based on what is learned from its extension into the focal domain. They note that the last of these three offers the greatest challenges and risks, but argue passionately that this kind of borrowing creates the greatest impact. Interestingly, these authors conceptualize impact broadly, including influences on field boundaries, researchers' scholarly development and impact on external constituencies, i.e. practitioners. One of the key contributions of this essay is what the authors call ‘the impact wheel’. Markóczy and Deeds (2009) take on the fundamental premise of Zahra and Newey's essay. They challenge the very idea of integrating theories across domains – particularly when such efforts stretch across different disciplines. What is interesting about their challenge is that it doesn't oppose the potential value of theoretical integration that Zahra and Newey describe. Instead, they propose that borrowing theory from disciplines outside of management sacrifices another important goal – developing and maintaining management as a distinctive and legitimate academic field. Accomplishing this goal, they maintain, requires paradigmatic discipline of the kind described in Pfeffer (1993), and this discipline means building theory from ideas within our field rather than reaching outside it. Recognizing that the field may be a long way from this goal, these authors have strong words for those who would advocate for a more pluralistic stance: ‘In our view it is time for the discipline of management to grow up and look to itself first for explanations of phenomena rather than continue to first seek to integrate and synthesize theories and methods from other disciplines’ (p. 1079). For Markóczy and Deeds, borrowing theory amounts to a kind of scholarly infidelity. As with most controversies, both sides have important lessons to teach us. Zahra and Newey do much to help us understand what borrowing theory means and how to do it in a way that maximizes impact. Markóczy and Deeds help us understand the consequences of such borrowing on broader issues in our field's development and therefore suggest why we should constrain it. Enjoy this debate and feel free to post a reaction or comment using the new Correspondence feature of our website at http://www.respond2articles.com/jms.

This study examines the downfall of the permanent employment tradition in South Korean manufacturing organizations in the aftermath of the 1997 East Asian economic crisis. We explore whether organizations abandon their traditional institutionalized practices under discontinuous environmental change or despite the change continue these time‐honoured practices. We examine both the organizational factors that inhibit lay‐offs and performance indicators that trigger organizations to re‐evaluate their lifetime employment practices under drastic environmental upheaval. We test our hypotheses on 574 Korean manufacturing organizations and find that under discontinuous change: (1) economic and institutional factors simultaneously apply opposite forces on organizational actions; (2) organizational factors such as poor performance on productivity and export create a need for headcount reductions while factors such as size, domestic ownership, government support, and unionization create social and institutional pressures that inhibit downsizing; and (3) prior experience with downsizing moderates the relationship between institutional factors and further downsizing.

This article reviews and discusses the contribution of William Starbuck's ‘Learning by Knowledge‐Intensive Firms’. Apart from situating Starbuck's article in its historical context and contemporary debates it is argued that the concept of esoteric knowledge and the focus on persuasion provides untapped potential for enhancing our understanding of knowledge work and knowledge‐intensive firms. In conclusion, Starbuck's argument is used as input for a reconceptualization of the relationship between power, knowledge work, and knowledge‐intensive firms.